Killers
by moonshadow2012
Summary: Dr. Wells mused that he may as well put Barry on the payroll considering how much time he spent at STAR Labs. (Earth 2) My origin story for E2 Killer Frost and Zoom!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Cisco was watching the Flash on NewsTube again. Dr. Harrison Wells suppressed a grimace and attempted to distract himself once again with his paperwork. If it had been anyone else, he would have ordered them to get back to work immediately, but this was Cisco. He'd probably already finished the project he'd been assigned to when it wasn't due until next month. Besides, Harrison had always harbored a soft spot for the eccentric inventor.

He was so preoccupied by Cisco's fascination with the presumptuous, overconfident man in the tin hat that he almost missed a certain CCPD forensic specialist sneaking past his office. The young man looked no older than eighteen, but Harrison knew for a fact he was almost twenty-six (he'd hacked the kid's records the first time he'd snuck in).

The forensic scientist pressed his back to a pillar, taking a moment to push his glasses higher up on his nose, and proceeded to stroll casually past Harrison's glass-walled office.

"Nice try, Mr. Allen." Harrison called out dryly.

Barry Allen winced, then turned on his heel and trudged sheepishly to the door of Harrison's office. "H-hi, Dr. Wells."

Harrison raised an eyebrow, glancing down at the brown paper bag in Barry's hand. "I suppose you've come to distract my head biochemist again?"

"W-well, it is lunchtime, sir." Barry smiled cautiously. "And you know how Cait – uh, Dr. Snow – can get when she's working."

Harrison looked at his watch, then put on his best stern face to stare directly into Barry's eyes. "My employees are permitted one hour lunch periods, Mr. Allen. Don't make her late." He paused. "Again."

Barry blushed, running a hand through his hair. "Sorry about that, sir. It won't happen again, I promise."

"See that it doesn't." Harrison nodded his head by way of dismissal.

Barry grinned like a puppy and spun around, but was stopped by Harrison's voice.

"And Mr. Allen?"

"Yes, Dr. Wells?"

Harrison glowered for real this time. "Lana will page Dr. Snow to meet you over the intercom. The last time you were in her lab, her team was set back two months in research because of your clumsiness."

Barry reddened again. "Of course, Dr. Wells. Sorry, Dr. Wells."

He hit the door frame in his haste to get out of the office. Harrison rolled his eyes, but allowed himself a small smile after the boy had turned the corner. Barry was a bull in a china shop, but he had a good heart and a brilliant mind. Harrison had often contemplated an attempt to poach him from the CCPD. Barry, Harrison hypothesized, would have made a much more competent Flash than that ignoramus Jay Garrick.

Z

"Dr. Snow?"

Caitlin looked up from her microscope. She blinked her eyes a few times and pulled herself gently from her thoughts. One of her lab technicians was standing beside her looking concerned. She was a new hire – one of those fresh-out-of-college types who would take any job to get experience in their field of choice. Caitlin couldn't remember her name at the moment and the poor thing had forgotten her name tag.

"Yes?" Caitlin replied politely.

"They just paged you over the intercom," The lab tech said apologetically. "Something about needing you in the main office?"

Caitlin glanced regretfully at her work and sighed. "Alright. Can you put these away for me? I don't know how long I'll be gone."

"Of course, Dr. Snow."

Caitlin nodded at the tech. She deposited her latex gloves in a trash can on her way out the door, heels clicking decisively with every step. The back of her mind still buzzed with information, observations, and hypotheses about her experiment, but she attempted to focus for the sake of whoever had paged her.

The main office was nearly deserted when Caitlin pushed open the door, and the three people inside didn't even work in her division. She frowned minutely, trying to make sense of this turn of events through the cloud in her mind that was her work.

"Ah, Dr. Snow. I believe we have an appointment?" A voice murmured near her ear.

Caitlin grinned, whirling to see the man who had hidden out of sight behind the door. "Barry!" She exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his neck. Pulling away, she frowned in confusion. "But wait, I thought Dr. Wells banned you from the Labs for life."

"Apparently he just meant the labs in which I can knock things over and break stuff." Barry grinned back. As if just remembering he had it, he held up the brown paper bag. "I brought you lunch."

"Excellent! I'll clock out and meet you outside."

"Wait, wait, wait…" Barry caught her arm as she turned to leave. "Give me a kiss first."

" _Barry_ , I'm _working_." She reminded him gently. "We can kiss when I'm on lunch."

"Please?" He turned the full force of his puppy eyes on her and she groaned in defeat.

"Fine; _one_ kiss." Caitlin held up a finger for extra emphasis. "And you better enjoy it, because Dr. Snow and her team are still recovering from your last visit."

"But Caitlin still loves me, right?" He seemed concerned, even as he took her in his arms.

"We both _love_ you," Caitlin assured him, "Dr. Snow is just a little fed up with your shenanigans."

"In that case, let me apologize to her." Barry murmured as he closed the distance between their lips.

As always, the world seemed to melt away and Caitlin's ears were filled with the sound of their heartbeats. Barry held her securely against him and she held him too, just in case. By the time they broke apart, the buzzing in the back of Caitlin's head had receded into the Work Center where it belonged.

"Hmm," She murmured. "I accept your apology."

"I'm glad." Barry murmured back.

Z

The Flash grunted as he pulled the bandage tighter around his arm. A jewel thief had gotten in a lucky shot, and even though the wound was already beginning to close Jay knew the importance of proper first aid. His tin hat laid on the table beside him in the little room. It was actually a storage locker that had been outfitted to serve as an HQ for what Joan liked to call his Extravagant Volunteer Work.

After wrapping his arm, Jay stripped his shirt off and laid it on the table, snatching supplies and turning on the radio in the span of a second. He laid his Super Suit First Aid Kit by the shirt, but instead of getting to work he sat back in his chair and listened to the radio, one hand keeping pressure on his wound.

There wasn't much new in the world these days. It hadn't taken very long for the world to get used to the existence of metahumans; they'd all picked sides in the debate over what was to be done about these creatures and not much had happened since. Harrison Wells was still being honored for his contributions to the anti-meta task forces and civilian safety equipment, too. Jay narrowed his eyes. What kind of man disrupts the balance of the universe and then takes advantage of his victims?

A whoosh of air disrupted his train of thought and he grimaced but didn't turn. "You're late."

"Sorry!" The young voice exclaimed. "I got distracted and by the time I checked the time it was already…"

"Calm down, kid." Jay smirked. "It's not like I'm going to fire you."

"Yeah…but still, I'm sorry."

This time, Jay did turn. "As your mentor, I feel that the first thing I need to teach you is to not get so caught up in apologizing. A lot of people who demand your respect don't deserve it."

"Are you talking about Dr. Wells?" The kid asked cautiously.

"Among others." Jay shrugged a shoulder and immediately winced.

"You're hurt!" The kid exclaimed. Before Jay could blink or open his mouth to reassure him, the kid had sped over and was examining the wound with a practiced eye. "Looks like a gunshot wound." He grabbed the Superhero First Aid Kit and returned in a blur. "When did you get shot? Was it a bank robbery again? I'm so sorry, Jay, I should've been there. Do you mind if I take off this bandage? Not that I don't trust you I just want to make sure it doesn't get infected did you use disinfectors I'll put more on just in case wowIthinkthisneedstobestitcheddon'tworryI'lldoitit'llbeoverbeforeyouknowit..!"

Jay struggled to make out the kid's words, but before long they went supersonic as his wound was disinfected, stitched, and re-bandaged within seconds. Jay sighed. "Barry? Barry! Calm down! It's just a graze. A flesh wound, if you will. Nothing to worry about."

"You were _shot_ , Jay." Barry Allen replied flatly.

"It happens in this business." Jay rubbed his neck. "I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to reconsider being my protégé."

"What? No way!" Barry exclaimed. "You saved my life, Jay. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably have vibrated myself into a nebula of atoms by now. You taught me how to control my speed, and I want to use my powers to help people like you do."

Jay smiled softly. "I won't hold it against you if you change your mind."

"I won't hold it against you if you keep offering," Barry retorted. "But I'm not going to change my mind. I don't know if this makes any sense, but when you were helping me learn to channel my speed and we saved that bus full of kids…I just got the feeling that this is what I'm meant to be doing with my life."

"Yeah." Jay agreed softly. "I know what you mean."

Barry nodded as if he was satisfied with Jay's understanding of his resolve and moved to work on his mentor's suit. "You got blood on it," He murmured. "I know how to get that out."

"If you're really intent on staying, you're going to need a code name." Jay mused.

"Yeah." Barry grinned at the thought. "Something cool, like 'the Flash'. Maybe 'Bolt' or 'Lightning' or 'Dash.'"

"What about 'Zoom?'" Jay wondered.

Barry paused. "Zoom." He echoed. "I like it."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Once again, Caitlin woke up on Barry's couch alone. She rubbed the blurriness of sleep from her eyes, noticing that the TV was off. She presumed she'd fallen asleep in the middle of the movie because she couldn't remember the ending but she could remember Barry's enthralled expression as the plot unfolded.

Caitlin loved watching Barry's face during their movie nights and usually his impish, enthusiastic responses kept her awake long into the night. But yesterday had been a long day, even for her, and she'd barely kept her eyes open through their customary dinner of fancy takeout – the "fancy" part being the dime-store candles Barry set up around the room.

"All ladies deserve candlelit dinners," He'd explained the first time he'd done it.

"I'm not a lady; I'm a scientist." Caitlin remembered replying.

"You're my lady." Barry had insisted, and she was too touched to argue with that.

Now, as she woke up, she became aware of Barry's little preparations for her awakening. He'd covered her in his fluffiest blanket and stuck a post-it note on the lamp. She reached over to take it.

 _Cait – Jay called._

 _Dr. Light's at a bank downtown._

 _Going to stop her and scout the city._

 _Hopefully be back before you wake up, but if not I made coffee._

 _Your donuts are by the microwave and I set the timer so you'll be on time for work._

 _Love, Barry_

Caitlin smiled softly. She hadn't been very supportive of the whole superhero thing at first, but it made Barry happy. When he was Zoom he felt like he had the power to stop people from feeling the pain he'd felt as a child when his mother was murdered. When she'd realized how much it meant to him, she couldn't keep him from it. Being in love meant making sacrifices and compromises for your partner, and Barry was worth every ounce of terror Caitlin felt when he didn't call or come back on time.

By the time the alarm went off, Caitlin was almost out the door. As she turned the timer off, she frowned. Grabbing a post-it from her boyfriend's desk, she scribbled down a note in her most legible handwriting.

 _Bartholomew,_ She wrote his full name so he would know she was serious.

 _You missed breakfast and now owe me dinner._

 _Love, Caitlin_

Before she left, she laid his clothes out on the bed for him so he would hopefully avoid aggravating his boss with his tardiness. Not that she expected or even wanted him to change – that was one of the nice things about Barry; somehow, he could gain superhuman abilities and still seem like the same guy who'd tripped over flat surfaces for twenty-four years. In the midst of incessant changes to the world and the people who lived in it, Barry was a constant. Her constant.

Z

"Dr. Wells," Cisco was bouncing from one foot to the other, clearly agitated.

Harrison sighed and gestured for him to come in, but the panic in the boy's eyes was enough to form a rock in the pit of Harrison's stomach. "What happened this time, Cisco?"

"I was watching NewsTube – I mean, I was done with my work. Well, I was in the middle of an experiment but the chemicals needed to be refrigerated until they were at sub-zero temperatures and I calculated that that would take about thirty minutes and I already finished my other assignment so it's not like I was wasting time or…"

"Mr. Ramon." Harrison intoned. "I repeat; What happened?"

"It's the Flash." Cisco said in a hurry. "There was some sort of incident downtown – Flash and Zoom were doing one of those charity races and suddenly something, some c _reature_ …I don't even know what it was, it looked like it just kind of _emerged_ from their speed trails." He shuddered. "It was pure black with blue lightning and it just stood there _shrieking_ and then it just disappeared in a blur."

Harrison was leaning forward, expression carefully blank. "What happened to Flash and Zoom?" He asked. "Were they hurt? Did they confront the creature?"

"After it disappeared, it looked like they chased it but there isn't any more footage." Cisco took a deep breath. "Dr. Wells, I've never seen anyone move like that. Not even the speedsters. This thing…I don't think it's a metahuman. I don't think it's even _remotely_ human."

"What else do you suppose it could be?" At this point Harrison was keeping his voice low to avoid attracting attention and hoped the young engineer would follow his lead.

This was the question Cisco had been waiting for. He leaned forward, bracing his hands against the desk. "Flash and Zoom have referenced something in interviews called the Speed Force. I think it's the source of their power."

"What are you saying?" Harrison was a genius. He knew what Cisco was implying; he just had to hear it out loud.

"I think that Flash and Zoom are conduits between Earth and the Speed Force. And I think this…Black Flash…used them to get into our world, our dimension of reality."

"If that's true," Harrison murmured, "Then we will need to turn our attention to how to combat this creature and prevent others of its kind from following it here. We can't count on J…on the Flash to do it on his own."

"Well he's not really alone." Cisco pointed out. "He has Zoom."

"True." Harrison mused. "But my point still stands. Take a few lab techs with you and see what kind of energy readings you can pick up from the site of the creature's entrance into our world. We need to work with every scrap of evidence we can find."

"Absolutely." Cisco nodded resolutely and turned to leave.

"Oh, and Cisco?" Harrison called. "There's no need to inform Dr. Snow or anyone outside of the two of us about this project or the creature."

"Of course." Cisco agreed.

He knew about Harrison's need for privacy, so the request didn't come as a surprise to him. He had no way of knowing that there was anything other than a business motive behind it. After he left the office, Harrison got up to close the door. He made his way over to his desk and picked up his phone.

"Hello, Operator?" He said. "Get me Barry Allen."

Z

"What was that thing?" Barry finally demanded. "It was like some sort of living shadow."

Jay didn't look up from the device he was tinkering with. He hadn't wanted to talk about the incident after they'd lost the creature on the outskirts of town, and Barry had been late for work anyway so he didn't push too hard. But now it was different. They were in the storage unit with the police scanner on what seemed to be an eerily quiet night. And Barry was practically vibrating with anxiety.

"I have no idea." Jay replied. "I've never seen anything like it."

"It came out of our speed trails." Barry went on. "Why would it do that? Do you think we led it here?"

"We couldn't have known this was going to happen."

"But it _happened_!" Barry shouted. "What are we going to do about it? If that thing kills someone, it'll be our fault!"

"No, Barry, it won't." Jay turned to face his protégé. "Just because it came from our speed trails doesn't mean we're responsible for its actions. Whatever it is, we're going to find it and deal with it but we are not going to agonize over it like its Pandora's Box and we just released all the evil into the world."

"What if it is?" Barry asked in a low voice.

Jay sighed. "Pandora's Box is a fable warning people about heading the instructions of those who are experienced with the outcome. We have no idea what this thing is. We didn't break any rules or disregard any warnings to bring it here. It's scary and probably dangerous, but it's not our fault. We're going to protect this city anyway, because that's what we do. Not because we feel guilty." He leveled a gaze at Barry. "Do you understand?"

"Yes," Barry swallowed hard, then met Jay's gaze. "What are we waiting for? Let's find this thing and see if it comes in peace."

Z

"Well, well, well, Dr. Snow. I'm not surprised to find you still here."

Caitlin smiled over her cup of coffee. "Nor I, you, Mr. Ramon."

Cisco took a seat across the table from her. They were in the breakroom after most other employees had left for the day. Glancing at the clock, Cisco threw his co-worker a lopsided grin. "Waiting for a certain forensic specialist, are we?"

"Perhaps." But the smile in her voice betrayed her. "And who are you waiting for? A certain barista?"

Cisco blushed. "Kendra and I are just friends." He mumbled.

"Of course." Caitlin smiled sweetly. "Barry and I used to be 'just friends,' too."

Cisco glanced around. "It's not that I wouldn't _like_ for Kendra and me to be something…more intimate…it's just that I get this vibe from her sometimes, like she's still hung up on someone else." He shrugged. "I don't want to risk pushing her away."

"You're a really great guy, Cisco." Caitlin said sincerely. "I'm sure Kendra will realize that soon."

Before he could reply, an alarm blared through the building. The two scientists exchanged wide-eyed looks.

"Is that a security alarm?" Caitlin gasped incredulously.

Cisco's eyes widened. "The experiments!"

"What experiments?"

But the Latino had already shoved away from the table and sprinted into the hallway. Bewildered, Caitlin followed him down the stairs to his lab. In front of his file cabinet decorated in comic book hero symbols, a man in a dark blue parka stood, rifling through the files.

"Hey!" Cisco shouted without thinking. "Get away from there!"

The man turned fluidly, one arm stretching out to point some sort of bulky gun at the scientists.

"Look out!" Caitlin tackled Cisco to the ground as the man fired his weapon. She felt something stream over her back, and then she screamed as excruciating pain overloaded every nerve in her body. It was like she'd just been dipped in liquid nitrogen.

"Caitlin!" Cisco shrieked as he watched his friend's convulsing body ice over. He reached out to her, but her skin was cold enough to burn his hands and he immediately jerked back. Turning with fury to their assailant, he scrambled to his knees only to see the same weapon pointed directly at his face. "My cold gun." He realized numbly. His invention. His precious experiment had hurt his friend.

"Oh, so you're the mastermind behind this little toy." The man smiled in a cruel way. "I believe it's fair to say that I'm a fan of your work."

"You hurt Caitlin." Cisco said. "She needs help."

"I don't think help will arrive fast enough for her." The man shrugged. "Pity. She seemed quite attractive."

Cisco shivered with rage, looking over the barrel of his cold gun into the man's dark goggles. "Go ahead." He seethed. "Shoot me. I deserve it for letting someone like you take my invention."

"Ah, but I might need you again someday, Mr. Scientist." The man smirked. "So I think I'll leave you alive…for now."

Cisco watched him back out of the room, files in hand. As soon as the thief was out of sight, Cisco lunged for the lab's phone.

"I need a medical team down here immediately prepped to treat severe hypothermia and frostbite!"

Caitlin was still writing on the floor, and Cisco let a few tears slip from his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Caitlin." He gasped. "I'm so sorry."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Barry and Cisco stood by Caitlin's bed. No hospital was equipped to deal with something like this, so Dr. Wells had all available scientists and lab assistants working around the clock to create treatments for Caitlin at Star Labs. Barry's fists were clenched as he attempted to keep himself out of the way of the doctors. His eyes were raw from crying and he didn't know if he had a job anymore because he hadn't been to work since a barely-coherent Cisco had called him with the news.

Caitlin didn't look much better than she had that night, besides the fact that she was no longer writhing in pain. Barry sometimes found himself selfishly wishing she was, because then at least she wouldn't look like a corpse. Frost clung to her skin and hair, even coating the insulated flannel she was now clothed in. The scientists had been forced to saw through the clothes she'd been wearing when she was shot – they were frozen solid.

 _I should have been there._ Barry thought about it constantly. It was torture – knowing he had the power to think faster than the speed of light and yet had been unable to keep his girlfriend, his Caitlin, safe.

"This is all my fault."

For a moment, Barry thought he'd been the one to say it. When he realized he hadn't, he looked over at Cisco. "What are you talking about?"

Cisco's face was contorted in agony. "I should've…" He took a deep breath to steady himself. "I should've _seen_ this coming."

"Oh, Cisco," Barry forcibly pulled himself away from his own self-loathing. "No, it wasn't your fault." Cisco wasn't convinced and Barry searched for the part of him that always seemed to know how to connect to people. "You said yourself that even with your vibes you can't see everything in the future…especially split-second decisions, right?" He gently turned the psychic meta towards himself. "Caitlin deciding to push you out of the way was a split-second decision. You couldn't have seen it if you'd tried."

"I should've…"

"You couldn't have." Barry said firmly.

Cisco looked his friend in the eyes and crumbled again. "I'm sorry, Barry."

Barry swallowed hard. "Why don't you go get us some coffee? Preferably from Jitters, I hate that break room stuff." He forced a small smile.

"Ok." Cisco nodded slowly. "Ok."

"I'll call you if anything happens." Barry assured him.

"You better." Cisco replied seriously.

Barry waited until he was out of earshot to go over to the telephone. He kept an eye on the only pseudo-nurse in the room at the time as he casually lowered his hand to the desk on the side of the phone facing away from her. She wasn't paying attention to him; too busy checking and rechecking the charts because _her body temperature is negative one hundred, she shouldn't even be_ alive _right now._

Barry vibrated his hand against the side of the phone until it rang. The nurse looked over, but he smiled at her, waving her off as he picked it up. "Hello?" He said to the dial tone. "Uh-huh. Yes. I'll tell her."

The nurse was obviously curious when he hung up.

"You're needed on the third floor. Dr., uh…" Barry hit the desk a few times and looked up as if to jog his memory. _And three, two…_ He trailed off as his eyes landed on Caitlin's still, cold form.

The nurse smiled gently. "I'll go find out what they want." She said.

Barry smiled back sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, sweetheart. Everyone forgets things now and then."

And then she was gone. Barry forced himself to walk at a normal pace to the door. He closed it and locked it slowly, careful not to break it with speed-induced strength. And when all that was done, he turned back to his comatose girlfriend, repeating what Dr. Wells had told him in his head.

" _When she was struck by the cold gun, her metagene was activated. We don't know why this instance triggered it and not the particle accelerator explosion, but the main point is that the blast from the cold gun caused her metagenes to mutate in unnatural ways. As far as we can tell, the powers she would have had had her metagene activated normally were based in healing. For example; substituting resources from the environment into materials she could use to heal herself or others."_

" _She's not healing, she's getting worse."_ Barry had argued angrily.

" _On the contrary, she's absorbing the heat from everything around her to fight off the effects of the cold gun."_

" _Kind of like a heat vampire."_ Cisco had mentioned that without his usual dose of humor or fascination.

" _That's the reason the room feels cold even though the thermostat is set at two hundred and all the nurses have to wear special protective gear. If anyone touches her bare skin, they'll instantly freeze solid."_ Barry didn't want to know how Dr. Wells had figured that one out.

Barry remembered all that as he shrugged out of his sweater and his T-shirt. Bare-chested, he stood beside Caitlin's bed. He shivered – not from the cold, but from the tendrils of fear that snaked through his being. "It's going to be okay." He told himself again. "I did the calculations. It'll be fine."

He knew he wasn't going to talk himself out of it, but he still lingered at the edge of the bed. "Come on, Barry. The nurse will be back any minute now." He knew it took longer than a few minutes to check with every Dr. Something on the third floor, but he had to do this before anything went wrong.

Determinedly, Barry slid onto the bed and took Caitlin in his arms.

The chill shocked him immediately, but it wasn't just the cold that surprised him. The chill, while latching onto him and penetrating his body instantly, seemed to linger, feeling him out as if to determine whether he was a viable source of sustenance. Barry let it test him, pressing Caitlin's face into the crook of his neck and linking his fingers between hers. He closed his eyes tightly as the cold came to a decision and seared into his flesh.

 _Hang on, hang on._

Barry pressed desperate kisses to Caitlin's face and forehead, silently begging her to wake up. He knew, even with his breakneck metabolism and lightning rejuvenation he wouldn't last long against Caitlin's uninhibited power. But maybe he could warm her up enough to bring her out of her coma and back to him. Maybe he could give her enough heat and her metagene would fight off the cold and heal her.

 _Caitlin, please, come back to me._

"You know, a normal person wouldn't last more than half a second pressed up to her like that."

Barry stiffened, tightening his grip on Caitlin.

"Good thing you're not normal, right, Zoom?"

Barry closed his eyes. "So you know." He tried to keep his voice level. "Do whatever you want to me, but let me help Caitlin." His teeth were chattering and he was shaking from the cold, which put a damper on the seriousness of his words. His mind was already going fuzzy with hypothermia, so he didn't dare try again.

"I think you've helped quite enough for one day, Mr. Allen."

"N-no. Just a l-l-little longer."

" _Barry_."

"Dr. Wells, I…" But Harrison was already pulling Barry off the bed.

The boy's skin was blue and he was shuddering violently. Harrison rubbed Barry's arms, wishing he could share his body heat as the boy had with Caitlin but knowing that if he took his protective gloves off the frosty residue on the boy's skin could freeze him just as easily as if he'd embraced Dr. Snow himself.

Barry was crying softly, tears freezing to his cold cheeks as he curled up into a ball at the foot of Caitlin's bed. Harrison tugged at him, trying to get him to stand, to move away from the one person he didn't ever want to leave. It was tearing him apart to see her like this, but he couldn't leave her side. Yet Harrison knew that if he didn't get Barry somewhere warm quickly, the boy's systems would start shutting down.

"Come here, Barry. Come on."

Harrison half-carried Barry out of the room. They'd set up a makeshift break room next to Caitlin's ward with a large observation window cut into the separating wall. Thanks to the constant chill that lingered in the ward, blankets were stashed in the corner of the break room. Harrison deposited the speedster in a chair and grabbed the blankets to drape over him.

"W-what are you g-going to do to me n-n-now?" Barry asked, looking up at the scientist cautiously.

Harrison rolled his eyes. "Wow, Garrick really doesn't trust me, does he?" Making his way to the coffee without turning around, he added, "I've known who you two really are for months. If I wanted to do something to you, I would've done it already."

"Makes s-sense." Barry murmured.

"Here." Harrison pushed a steaming mug into Barry's hands. "You really overdid it in there. Even your enhanced metabolism can't fight off infinite cold that easily."

"'s not infinite cold." Barry murmured. "Cait's body is just sucking the heat out of mine. She's not freezing me. Not like everybody thinks."

"I know." Harrison replied. "Cisco knows, too. And all of the scientists who have even a remote understanding of biochemistry. Which, I'll admit, isn't many. Dr. Snow was always the mastermind in that field. I suppose I took her talent for granted and didn't think to hire any backup staff."

"You don't need to worry." Barry shivered. "Caitlin will get better. She'll still be the only one you need."

Harrison smiled sadly. "That's what Jesse says."

Barry's lips twitched upwards at that. "How's she holding up?"

"Not great." Harrison sighed. "I've banned her from the Labs because I know Caitlin wouldn't want her to see her this way, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time."

"No ban powerful enough to stop Jesse Quick." Barry muttered, using his nickname for her. "No man or woman fast enough to outthink her."

"Isn't that the truth?" Harrison sighed. Suddenly curious, his eyes slid over the young forensic scientist. "Allen, what's Garrick's plan to deal with that Black Flash?"

"Black Flash?" Barry smirked. "I bet that was Cisco's idea."

"That it was."

Barry hummed, thinking over the question. "The last time we talked, Jay was planning to draw the creature into a secluded location so that no one would get hurt."

"And then…?"

"We don't know." The boy's forehead creased. "We don't know what it is or what it wants yet, so Jay wants to go in carefully first and gather information."

"You can gather information from the creature just as well once it's contained." Harrison frowned. "What's Garrick's plan? To talk to it? See if it's willing to call a truce?"

"It hasn't hurt anyone yet."

"Maybe not, but it's definitely scared people." Harrison had to calm himself down, remembering that Barry hadn't so much as left the wing of the Labs where Caitlin was being held since she'd been shot. "You haven't seen the news, but it descends on people like a cloud and does something to knock them unconscious. It's paralyzed people for up to an hour."

"I'm sure Jay has it under control."

"I wouldn't be too certain."

"Dr. Wells…" Barry stiffened when he caught sight of something through the observation window. His mouth opened and closed once or twice, and then he was bolting towards the door at just over normal speed (due to the cold, most of his power had been invested in his regenerative capabilities). "Cait?! Caitlin? Oh, Cait…!"

Harrison turned to see a pale Caitlin Snow standing in front of the observation window. "Allen, wait…!" There was something wrong, something off about her. For one thing, her skin was still covered in frost, her lips still blue. Her hair was still bleached and the way her eyes followed Barry was almost predatory. But of course Barry didn't listen. Instead, he wrenched the door open and bounded over to his girlfriend.

"Cait, you're alive! You're okay!"

And then she lunged.


End file.
